The Franco-Finnish International Association Armas Launis was founded in 2001 in Paris at the initiative of the poet Anja Kosonen-Fantapié (†) and the conductor and composer Henri-Claude Fantapié, under the patronage of Jacques Peyrat, Senator for the Alpes-Maritimes, and Her Excellency Pilvi Sisko Vierros Villeneuve, Ambassador of Finland to France.

The honorary committee includes: His Excellency Ambassador Esko Hamilo, the composers Paavo Heininen (†), Aulis Sallinen, and Erkki Salmenhaara (†), the conductors Henri-Claude Fantapié, Ulf Söderblom, and Jean-Jacques Werner (†), the director of the Nice National Conservatory of Music, André Peyrègne, and Professor Eero Tarasti.

Asta Schuwer Launis (†), daughter of Armas Launis, presided over the Association until 2023, and today Launis’ granddaughter, Martine Schuwer, has been elected president.

The Franco-Finnish association, whose mission is to raise awareness and promote the works of Armas Launis, organizes concerts and seminars. It  has thus created “Armas Launis” events in collaboration with Yleisradio (Finnish National Broadcasting Corporation), Kansalliskirjasto (National Library of Finland), the French Institute in Finland, the Finnish Literature Society, the Finnish Institute in Paris and the City of Nice.

Among these events : an international symposium in Paris in 2003, the world premiere of the opera Aslak Hetta (at the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki in 2004) and its recording (Ondine 2005), as well as the production of the DVD by the Kalevala Association of the film Haïdenvietto Karjalan runomailla “The Wedding in Karelia, Land of Poems” for which Launis composed the original music.

Furthermore, the association commissioned the transcription of the score of Launis’s opera Jehudith and, in collaboration with the Finnish Musicological Society, produced a special issue of the magazine Musiikki dedicated to Armas Launis.

Finally, on July 2, 2026, the premiere of Armas Launis’s last opera, composed in 1957, Jäiset Liekit (Frozen Flames), will take place in Tapiola Church.

The association’s role is therefore central as a forum for contacts between researchers from various fields interested in Launis. For their part, the board members publish research articles, present lectures on Launis in Finland, France, Algeria and Japan, and, as experts, evaluate numerous scientific and artistic projects concerning Armas Launis.

The Association is supported by several foundations.